Our current national champions

Did anyone notice that both current Open and Women's National Champions are under 15? What an achievement for these two juniors!

Roshan won the Open tournament while SEA Games bronze medallist Najiha took the women's crown. The latter's win did not come as a surprise to me.  I already picked her as our most promising youngster here.

The other player that is fast coming up the ranks is Camilia Johari. Not to say she is a newcomer, but she has mostly been in the shadows of  Najiha, Nabila, Fong Mi Yen and Li Ting (and maybe still is?). I see her play has been maturing over the past two years. She just needs to increase her self-confidence.

On a side note, I think our best bet for our ladies olympiad team should be these five players. They have proven themselves in the past. I would have included Alia Bakri who had an outstanding result in the last olympiad, but I did not see her play anymore after the 2010 Olympiad, and competing should be a criteria in selection.

Roshan's win has to be  the most convincing in the history of our National Championship. Normally it is quite close till the end and even sometimes gone to tie-breaks. This year he won with a round to spare which says something. It would have been even more astonishing if he could have won the last game, making it a perfect 9/9, something unheard of in our National championship history.